If table salt is bad for health why do we not stop eating it at all?

Answer 1

A small amount of salt in our diets is actually necessary (no salt diets can result in low blood pressure). Limiting salt is a good idea, avoid canned and frozen foods. I recommend sea salts as they are loaded with beneficial trace minerals.

Answer 2

There are a lot of things bad for health that people never stop doing. Almost everything nowadays is bad for your health. You can't walk outside without causing problems to your lungs because of the smog in certain cities. I'm not saying we shouldn't try to scratch things off the list of things we do that are bad for us, but I was just saying there are so many...

...but I don't use table salt at all. I never put it in recipes.

Answer 3

Gogogertie has it right. I've been tested for salt sensitivity and I don't have any problem with salt. From what I recall about the 'numbers' (this is NOT meant as an insult but it looks weird) the darker your skin the greater the chance that you'll have problems. Among light skinned "fair haired" north European ancestry types like me salt problems are very rare but as you progress to dark skinned African ancestry folks 'immunity' to salt is very rare. The *only* real way to know if salt bothers you is to be tested. It's not all that pleasant, you get a special *NO* sodium diet for 72 hours with regular BP checks followed by a large glass of salt water to see if your BP changes.

Answer 4

-table salt brings the flavor out in most foods
-table salt is needed in cakes and other sweets
-table salt makes food last longer
-table salt is not bad for your health unless you pour the whole thing into your mouth. that's the same as asking 'why do we eat cake, when it is bad for you?'. like all foods, if you eat too much of anything, it is always bad for you. you shouldn't need more than two pinches of salt in anything.

Answer 5

table salt is not necessarily bad for everyone's health. the major problem with salt is that it retains fluid which can lead to high blood pressure and congestive heart failure - however not every person is considered "salt sensitive" and most people will rid their bodies of excess sodium via urine. but a small population doesn't - and for them table salt is bad for their health.

Answer 6

To add to what Axel said, table salt is fortified with iodine, an essential nutrient that is missing from most Westerners diets. Salt is not bad in moderation.

Answer 7

It's not all bad.

If we don't eat it, then we would probably get Goiter, and our necks would just be rather...icky.

I do order everything without salt when I go out to eat though.
When I dump 4357280758420784 lbs of salt on a potatoe, it just seems like gluttony, where if a chef in the back of the resturant did it, it would be rather tasty.

Answer 8

Because it's NOT bad for your health. Well, like everything else, too much is bad for you. The human body does need salt, though.

Answer 9

its fairly hard to stop eating it when its used in everything that we eat. salt is a preservative we can go without adding it but it is almost impossible to go without it at all.

Answer 10

its not that its so bad limited amounts are benificial but in western culture we tend to do things in excess moderation is the key